• Published 1st Dec 2015
  • 1,474 Views, 73 Comments

The Void Rift Crisis - Visiden Visidane



A young alicorn seeks information on a world-changing event.

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Prior - Gravitas

How did the Void Rift Crisis come about? Only a fool still does not know the answer. Fortunately, the Herd has few fools. Unfortunately, it has many cowards who would rather pretend to be fools out of some ill-placed respect. You have come to the right alicorn to ask that, colt. When you find your mind becoming increasingly clouded because of all the cloying, half-false tales from those more interested in serving themselves, remember my account.

Turbo Pinnae caused the Void Rift Crisis.

There. There is the mysterious answer to your "difficult" question. There is the "sacred" answer so few of us have the nerve to say.

There are no guesses over the matter. Turbo Pinnae bumbled with forces beyond his ken, pushed by delusions of achievement, envy of an alicorn who was simply his better, and a fatal curiosity. Why so shocked? Expecting some simpering apologist answer? Go to Lexarius for one. Watch him spin rethoric and flattery as he hopes our rulers give him some meager honor for his brown-nosing. Why should I dance circles around this simple fact? Is it because Pinnae was a close friend of Sanctus Dominus? Did he consider that friendship as he toyed with the fate of our beloved Herd? Hardly. His Majesty treated Pinnae as a dear friend, hence his warnings over meddling with the Agamanthion. If Pinnae reciprocated even a fraction of that regard, or even had the basic sense to listen to an alicorn his superior in so many ways, he should have listened, and desisted. How can one be warned by both Juste Canite and Sanctus Dominus, and still fail to listen?

Yes, I do dare to say it. He was envious of Sanctus Dominus, and knew that he would never excel in battle as the Lord of Sunlight did. That's why he turned to his studies. So obssessed was he in this goal that he was heedless of all the voices telling him to stop.

He didn't, of course. They never do, these politicians, and scholars. They hide in safety, proposing risks for others until it all comes crashing down. Then, others must pay for their failures. To this moment, we are cleaning up after the crisis he caused while he rests easy in his being diminished.

Should I be respectful because he was going to be King? If there is anything remotely salvageable from the horror that was the Void Rift Crisis, it's that it exposed a weak candidate, and allowed a worthy ruler to shine. I never believed in Pinnae's kingship. He was flighty, easily distracted, and insecure, picking up one cause or another, then moving on if he did not shine the most in it. The Fifteenth Ascendant's kingship was stable, and peaceful, but his fatherhood failed his only son. Pinnae was almost uncontrollable, and the rest of the Herd simply bowed and nodded while he pulled us to our destruction.

I know the heart of this mess. Pinnae was a scholar; a dreamer full of theories and suppositions. Risk to him was a little number near the end of his rambling propositions and guesses. A warrior would have a better respect for risk, but Pinnae was barely a shadow in Ida, and he never showed an interest in our planar boundaries. Where was he when one of the wandering centimanii passed close to our world? I stood shoulder to shoulder with brave Sanctus Dominus, and Animus Arcem. Even Divina Gratia. But our former King-to-be was not the first to rush to the defense of his world. A pity that the centimanus only had the interest in a token exchange of blows. We might have exposed Pinnae earlier otherwise.

Some may say that Pinnae meant well, that he sought to unlock the mysteries involved with the Sixth Ascendant. It was a worthy goal, and fate merely conspired to lead it to a bad end. That is such sentimental, meaningless filth, and I am tired of hearing it. The Sixth's Seekers keep vomiting that up as they dredge one dangerous artifact after another out of the depths of our history. It never occurs to them that the Herd might be better off having obliterated nearly every trace of the Sixth Cycle, that we are tasked with completing whatever this cosmic event began. Of course it never has. Not even our near total annihilation can convince these fools that the Sixth Ascendant should be deliberately lost, not sought.

Every alicorn takes pride in the achievements of the cycle he was born in. The Sixth Cycle alicorns have none. I sympathize with them, truly, until the point where they would unleash horrors upon us just to change their lot. Why should so many be untimely diminished just so a generation can feel good about itself? It is madness. And it is a madness we tolerate. The Seekers continue with their wretched quest unchecked because so many find it sad and romantic. This is no simpering tale of noble, impossible goals. This is reality. And the reality of it is that we should focus on now, not some lost bit of history, and the now is threatened by their quest for knowledge.

I hear rumblings from fools over how frequently I call for events in Ida, that I glorify the war-like side of the Herd too much at the cost of "gentler arts". These same fools will bring about another crisis, which is exactly what I am trying to prepare for. How many of our brethren are like Turbo Pinnae? Are we going to wait until one of them has the hubris and means to destroy us all? I refuse.

So let the scholars and philosophers argue over the semantics of what started the Void Rift Crisis. I have given you all the answer you need. We who fought to resolve it must look to the future; stopping any more disasters that I'm sure one of them will cause.